BJP jacket allegation makes congress laugh

The Congress has laughed off the allegations of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that party chief Rahul Gandhi wore a jacket worth Rs 70,000.

Giving no importance to the issue, senior Congress leader Renuka Chowdhury said that similar jackets can be found for Rs 700 too. "I can show you the same jacket for Rs 700,' she said.

Taking a 'soot-boot ki sarkar' jibe at the Congress chief, BJP's Meghalaya unit had posted the photo of Rahul donning the jacket on Twitter at a music event in Shillong on Tuesday. "So @OfficeOfRG, soot (pun intended!)-boot ki sarkar with 'black' money fleeced from Meghalayan State exchequer by rampant corruption? Instead of singing away our woes, you could have given a report card of your inefficient govt in Meghalaya! Your indifference mocks us!," Meghalaya BJP had posted.

The jacket is believed to be a two-in-one down puffer jacket from Burberry, which is a British luxury fashion brand. On the Bloomingdales website, the cost of the jacket was listed as Rs 68,145.

BJP's reference to the "suit boot" jibe was seemingly aimed at Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had faced backlash from opposition parties for wearing a monogrammed suit during a meeting with the then US President Barack Obama in 2015.

The base price of the suit at an auction was Rs 11 lakh, and it was sold for Rs 4.31 crore. The Congress President was in Shillong to kick off the election campaign of the party in poll-bound Meghalaya.

The polling for the 60-member state assembly will take place on February 27 along with Nagaland. The results will be declared on March 3.